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Photo of Yvonne Condon, credit: Michael MacSweeney / Provision.

Press Release 04/06/21

Artist Yvonne Condon makes her mark on City’s Princes Street

A unique public art work on one of Cork's most beloved streets, supported by Princes’ Street traders, Cork City Council, Arts and Disability Ireland (ADI) and Crawford Art Gallery.

Stroll along Princes Street to discover street artwork by Yvonne Condon, a dynamic female artist from East Cork. Yvonne is partially sighted and has a hearing impairment. She also creates bold, uncompromising images, working with great speed.

Yvonne Condon paints on a large scale and had been looking for an outdoor location for some time for a new work. The meter box on Princes street in Cork was an ideal location for Yvonne and with the support of Cork City Council and its ‘Reimagining Cork City” programme, Princes’ Street traders, Arts and Disability Ireland(ADI) and Crawford Art Gallery, this was made possible.

Indeed, Yvonne’s work brought something fresh, uplifting and of artistic merit to the location. Yvonne is interested in documenting life as it happens. Her paintings are snapshots in time and her method reflects this as she completes them at high speed. The amount of detail Yvonne manages to include in her paintings is quite a feat due to her limited eyesight. Yvonne focuses on people and faces in her work and is inspired by such artists as August Sander.

Yvonne is an artist member of Crawford Art Gallery Supported Studio. Supported studios are sustained, creative environments that foster and support the art practice of individuals with health or social needs. They enable marginalized individuals to develop their professional practice, providing technical artistic support, promoting artists in the marketplace and building audiences outside health and social care settings.

Irish supported studios are a precious ecosystem, without which many artists would be deprived of the means to make their work. Supported studios in Ireland, include Crawford Art Gallery, KCAT in Kilkenny and the Arts Ability Studio group in Wexford, enable people with intellectual disabilities to have a meaningful creative presence within the cultural life of their communities.

The artists listed below are just some of the Supported Studio Artists and a selection of their works have recently been acquired by Crawford Art Gallery for the National Collection as part of a fund allocated by the government to Crawford Art Gallery and IMMA. 39 artists were chosen by Crawford Art Gallery and of this 39, 9 are Supported Studio Artists.

Yvonne Condon – Cork Rosaleen Moore - Cork Tom O’Sullivan - Cork Angela Burchill - Cork Íde Ní Shúilleabháin - Cork John Keating - Cork Declan Byrne – Kilkenny Marie Holohan – Wexford Briana Hurley – Kilkenny

Crawford Supported Studio’s Story

At the John Birmingham Day Care Centre in Cork, since the early 2000s artist-facilitator Hermann Marbe had created a supported studio, the Art Studio Programme (GASP). Here, he introduced art techniques and provided a space where people could try them out and identify the media that best brought out their talent. Every morning Hermann would visit each room, inviting its occupants to make some art. The studio door was open to all and residents could come as often as they wished. He patiently encouraged people to build their skills and confidence, discovering their unique creative natures over time.

In May 2018, Hermann Marbe passed away. With this, the GASP artists lost a formidable mentor and their greatest friend, but Hermann had seeded love for his project in many people’s hearts. His death coincided with the removal of funding from Cúig (Creativity Unlimited Integrated Group), founded ten years previously by the Mayfield Arts Centre, a vibrant art- facilitating and training centre that is deeply involved in its community. The idea for Crawford Support Studio was born.

The Crawford Supported Studio, established in 2018, is delivered through a partnership of institutional allies, comprising Crawford Art Gallery, CIT Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork City Council’s Arts Office and COPE Foundation. It is itself a legacy project, aiming to carefully hold over ten years’ worth of supported studio practice and sustaining that initiated, nurtured and developed within COPE Foundation by Hermann Marbe. https://crawfordartgallery.ie/wp-content/uploads/Museum-Ireland- Supported-Studios-Crawford-Artists-in-Context.pdf https://adiarts.ie/artists/showcasing/meet-an-artist/yvonne-condon/ https://crawfordartgallery.ie/crawford-supported-studio/ https://crawfordartgallery.ie/your-national-collection-2021/

The Crawford website has a full list of what to expect before a member of the public visits. www.crawfordartgallery.ie/visit/

As well as the Menagerie: Animals by Artists exhibition the Gallery also presents the exhibition by Dara McGrath: For Those That Tell No Tales, Dough Fishbone: Please Gamble Responsibly, film screenings of Artists International and Recasting Canova in its Sculpture Galleries.

The renowned Crawford Gallery Café will reopen on June 8 when outdoor dining will be resumed as part of the Governments public health measures announced.

ENDS Dyane Hanrahan Marketing & Communications Manager E [email protected] M +353 (0) 86 8278151 W www.crawfordartgallery.ie Crawford Art Gallery, Emmet Place, Cork, Ireland. T12 TNE6

Notes to the editor: New protocol for visitors https://crawfordartgallery.ie/visit/ Exhibitions currently on display https://crawfordartgallery.ie/exhibitions/ For additional imagery please click here

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More about Crawford Art Gallery

Crawford Art Gallery is an Irish national cultural institution, dedicated to contemporary and historic visual art, located in a significant heritage building in the heart of Cork city. Home to a collection of national importance, it tells a compelling story of Cork and Ireland over the last three centuries, while also offering a vibrant and dynamic programme of temporary exhibitions.

Originally built in 1724 as the city’s Customs House, the Gallery is home to the famous Canova Casts, gifted to Cork two centuries ago. Featured in the gallery’s collection of 3,000 objects are well-known and much-loved works by Irish artists James Barry, , , Seán Keating, Daniel Maclise, Norah McGuinness, Edith Somerville, and Jack B. Yeats, as well as contemporary artists Gerard Byrne, Maud Cotter, Dorothy Cross, Eilis O’Connell, and Hughie O’Donoghue.

An oasis of calm and tranquillity, Crawford Art Gallery is open seven days a week, free to enter, and a must-see for locals and tourists alike. The Gallery boasts an award-winning Café in stunning surroundings, serving fresh local produce for which Cork is famous.

Opening Hours Crawford Art Gallery reopens 10 May Monday–Saturday 10.00am–5.00pm Late opening Thursdays until 8.00pm Sundays and Bank Holidays Gallery: 11am - 4pm

Crawford Gallery Café & Garden Café The Gallery boasts an award-winning Café in stunning surroundings, serving fresh local produce for which Cork is famous. For opening hours www.crawfordgallerycafe.com